ORIGINAL PAPER What is responsible for increasing flood risks? The case of Gangwon Province, Korea Heejun Chang Æ Jon Franczyk Æ Changhwan Kim Received: 18 March 2008 / Accepted: 12 June 2008 / Published online: 4 July 2008 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008 Abstract We examined the anthropogenic and natural causes of flood risks in six representative cities in the Gangwon Province of Korea. Flood damage per capita is mostly explained by cumulative upper 5% summer precipitation amount and the year. The increasing flood damage is also associated with deforestation in upstream areas and intensive land use in lowlands. Human encroachment on floodplains made these urban communities more vulnerable to floods. Without changes in the current flood management systems of these cities, their vulnerability to flood risks will remain and may even increase under changing climate conditions. Keywords Flood risks  Climate change  Land use management  Vulnerability  GIS  Korea 1 Introduction Flood risks are rising in many parts of the world. The recent devastating floods in central Europe (Vogel 2002) and southern USA (Travis 2005) challenged current structural floodplain management practices. The Gangwon Province of Korea is also subject to flood risks. During recent past years, the province experienced multiple extreme floods (500 year-floods in consecutive years) caused by heavy rainfalls. Additionally, as cities grow, intensive land use adjacent to floodplains is believed to contribute to flood impacts. In the case of the 2002 typhoon Rusa, loss of life totaled 128 people, and the economic loss amounted to US $1.66 billion. As a result of the summer floods that occurred in July 2006, several counties within the province were declared disaster zones; the central government of Korea provided special funds to these zones to alleviate the financial burden. While H. Chang (&)  J. Franczyk Department of Geography, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97201, USA e-mail: changh@pdx.edu C. Kim Department of Geography Education, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, South Korea 123 Nat Hazards (2009) 48:339–354 DOI 10.1007/s11069-008-9266-y